It was raining again in Freeport, so Ijaka was glad to duck in to the studio building. Even if this and all of the other damnable task and errand he had on his to do list were starting to get on his last nerve. He nodded to the gnomish woman behind the counter, who piped up in a voice much too cheery for that time of day, "Good morning sir! Welcome back to Brushwuttle Studios. They're waiting for you in the back."

When he headed back to the exhibition area, he saw the there were four covered canvases and to the side stood 4 gnomes, three to the back and one standing before them; the gallery's owner C.M Brushwuttle. He gestured expansively as he saw Ijaka. "Ah ha! If it's not our pugilistic muse come to judge the fruits of our labor!" The Kerra smiled, idly wondering if he spoke like that because he was a gnome, or because he was an artist. "Hey, thanks for the quick work on this pal." The gnome waved a hand dismissively as he walked to the first canvas. "Not at all, not at all my good cat. A project like this was just the sort of inspiration that we needed. Now, we'll begin with the designs my apprentices have worked up." The three gnomes to the side shifted uncomfortably.

With a flourish, he removed the sheet covering the canvas. "Now! What do you think about that for your posters?" On the canvas,the stylized words read Commonlands Kombat. Behind the lettering was a large emblem; an orange circle overlaid with the image of a Kerra's head in black. Ijaka stared dumbly at it for several moments before regaining his composure. "Why is the word 'combat' spelled with a 'K'?" was the best that he could come up with. One of the agitated gnomes spoke up, "I... err, well, I thought that the repetition of two 'C's was not aesthetically pleasing." Ijaka wasn't really listening to the explanation though, he was already shaking his head. "No... I don't think so. People already tell me I have a huge ego it is, the last thing I need to do now is go around putting up posters with my face on them all over the place. This one's out."

Brushwuttle didn't seem diminished in the least, "Very well, very well. You can have no successes if you have no failures as I always say!" Another flourish and the second sheet fluttered away. This one looked a bit better, with two well painted figures in the middle of combat on a Freeport street. But then, he looked all the way up and noticed the title. It proclaimed Alley Brawler. "Alright, what the Zek is this? Look, I explained the event to you guys when I commissioned you to come up with the name and poster. Its a fighting tournament in the Commonlands. No alleys involved." One of the gnomes at the side sighed. "Next!"

The master painter continued to make his pithy comments as he unveiled the third piece. The Kerra was already shaking his head before the design came fully into view. It was a colorful assault on the eyes and the title was something unpronounceable in Maran and there were strange rendering of fighters below that, most of them having outlandish weapons and eyes that were too large. "Just no..." He glanced at Brushwuttle. "Alright, enough of the build up. Lets see your design."

The gnome smiled a satisfied smile and with his most elaborate flourish yet, he whipped the cloth off the final painting. "Well, now there is a reason they call you a master after all... " the Kerra remarked as he walked closer to take a better look at it. There were two fighters on this one as well, but they done better, to the point that you could see the expressions on their faces. Above that was printed Iron Fist Tournament, with a heavily armored fist in a wicked looking gauntlet. The Kerra was grinning broadly. "Now... this I like! But why 'Iron Fist'?"

Brushwuttle was already ordering his apprentices to clean up their dismissed works. "Oh, why, as homage to the Overlord, of course." Ijaka didn't roll his eyes, but it was a pretty near thing. "Ah, yes of course. We're going to need to change that though. It's not his tournament." He realized what that sounded like and then cleared his throat, "I mean to say, he's not sponsoring it and we shouldn't presume to suggest he has a part in it." He was pointing at the canvas with a claw. "Now, how about we change it up a bit. Strike the word 'fist' and replace with the word... hrrm... ah! 'Claw', yeah, that'll do it. Iron Claw. I like it. So, think you can switch that and change the fist in the background to a clawed hand?'

The gnome nodded his accent, already beginning to sketch on a pad. "Great, pal. Drop me a some post when its done and I'll see to the distribution." Still grinning, he headed out of the studio and off to arrange the rest.

The Iron Claw Tournament will be an emote dueling tournament where the winner of each match will be determined by a series of /random 100 rolls. Each participant will /random, the highest number being the winning roll. The participants will then act out part of the fight based on the roll result (i.e. a successful strike, a missed attack, a dodge, a failed parry, etc.). They will then roll again and act out the results of the second roll. To keep the event moving, each fight will work on the best 3 out of 5 basis. This means the first person to win 3 rolls will be the victor in their bout.

When a victor is determined, that player performs their 'knockout blow' to end the match. The loser will be able to respond to this emote to allow both victor and vanquished to win or lose well.

The winner of each bout advances to the next round until a champion is determined. There will be a fabulous prize for the champion and there will be prizes for all of the other participants as well.

Due to the time intensive nature of emote combat with rolling, we will need to limit the number of participants for this event. If the number of interested individuals exceeds the number of spaces we have, I will be pulling names out of a hat to see who gets a spot.

To minimize the appearance of down time during the fights, there will be color commentators discussing the goings on of the fight. One commentator will be Ijaka and then I plan to bring in a guest commentator for each fight (or as much as possible depending on the availability of commentators). This will allow the audience something to watch while the participants are doing their next set of rolls and setting up emotes. I've already begun talking to people who I think will be good for this end of things, or who fit thematically (notable persons in and around Freeport and Neriak). If you had an interest in this end of things, talk to me and we'll see what can be worked out.

Finally, to combat the perceived problem of underpowered characters beating up established, powerful or competent characters, I will be asking that all prospective participants RP at the Training Room or with me directly at some point so I can personally verify that everyone who will be fighting is at least competent enough to be considered a reasonable entry in a tournament like this. I apologize if this is inconvenient, but this to alleviate the concerns that many people have about events of this nature.

So... any questions? Comments? Interested in fighting? Drop me a line here or in game!))